Seating area

Such a lovely, restful area (like we have time to sit, lol). Beautiful. We have a bed near the garage with soil to hold back and in the end we went for half buried slabs, doesnt sound great but looks quite effective, looks like high, slim, concrete edgers. I dug a small trench and John concreted them in, holds the soil in the bed back perfectly.

You can also use concrete sleepers half buried and conncreted in.....your chairs and table are very much like ours...uncomfortable lol

Aaah that would be nice Homebird ;-)
Thanks for the ideas Dawn and Dd better than our log roll that's not wouldn't hold anything back !
They are uncomfortable Dd lol, this year we've invested in a very nice corner sofa and table for outdoors, seats 9 maybe 11 at a pysh with the little cube chairs that go with it now when I get sat on that I don't want to move , just need the rain to stop so we can use it!

Your outdoor furniture sounds more comfortable than the metal, we have the bench and a gin and tonic table with seat pads under the grape vine for when it's too hot to sit on the benches.......too hot!! that's a laugh lol

What a perfect place to sit with a cuppa or a glass of wine ,it would be hard to get up with a view like that ,something trailing over the edge of the log roll would soften it maybe look for something evergreen / winter hardy ..

Whoo concrete sleepers DD, they sound good, I will bear in mind for future projects.
Damn, I want a corner outdoor sofa, tut. I'm still working on John to open his wallet lol. I would like a nice, big chunky pergola over our patio area which is adjacent to the house with glass panels on top to keep everything dry (like the corner sofa) with gorgeous plants climbing the uprights. I think I need to put more pressure on him ;-0

Thanks for all the suggestions girls, I'll pass them on to the hard landscaper (Rob) ;-)
A pergola sounds good Dawn , our patio were the sofa is gets really hot we've been thinking how to shade it a bit parasol would be no good it's too windy here gazebo nooo next doors took off over the hedge!!, the furniture cushions are completely waterproof and can be left out not that we do yet its still new lol.

Lol, I can picture the gazebo flying off. My mum has one of those canopies that attach to the wall http://www.hillarys.co.uk/awnings/
Quite useful but quite expensive, lol.

It's funny you should mention those canopies Dawn my sister in law came to stay on Thursday and we had a barbecue for family, of course it waited till the minute we all sat outside and rained !! She suggested one if those too :-). Luckily we did get to go back outside for a while so Suzy could beat us all at swingball lol.

Haha, I used to love swingball. Rain rain rain, typical. They are nice awnings and of course, when they are wound back in, they dont stick out much from the wall.

We left it out for the baby shower too, quite funny after a drink or two lol.
We'll definitely have to look into one for another year , gravels the next thing on the list we have a path that needs redoing , it joins the one that surrounds half the house so needs to match and we're having trouble finding some the same !

I can imagine ;-)
Our local builders merchant is good - you can take a handful of your stone and they will try and identify/match it.
Years ago, I remember going to one of Charlotte's friends house and they had used pea gravel on an area and to get it level they kept adding more - when you walked, you sunk in and it was over your shoes lol. Our drive only has a thin layer of stone but underneath there is a deep layer of shale, then mill waste, so all nice and solid, then the topping of stone.
Good luck getting the gravel :-)